Pocket Guide to Gilbert and Sullivan by Diane Canwell

Author:Diane Canwell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: PER011000
ISBN: eBook ISBN: 9781844687145
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2011-07-11T16:00:00+00:00

A Chicago poster featuring Nanki-Poo from The Mikado dated 1885. From the Library of Congress collection.

The person thus raised to the exalted dignity of Lord High Executioner is Ko-Ko, the cheap tailor (Mr. Grossmith), and, to crown his happiness, he is about to be married to his lovely ward, Yum-Yum by name (Miss Braham). This prospective bliss is disturbed, however, by a letter from the Mikado, who, struck by the fact that no executions have taken place at Titipu for a year, decrees that, unless somebody is beheaded within the space of one month, the office of Lord High Executioner shall be abolished and the city reduced to the rank of a village. Ko-Ko, who is first on the condemned list, naturally objects to committing self-execution, which, as he remarks, is a capital offence.

Fortunately, a substitute is found in the person of Nanki-Poo (Mr. Lely), a wandering minstrel, who loves Yum-Yum and agrees to be beheaded at the end of one mouth, provided he be allowed to marry her for that month. “My position during the next month will be most unpleasant,” Ko-Ko remarks; “but, dear me! after all it is only putting off my wedding for a month,” he philosophically adds.

At the marriage feast which is accordingly prepared a new complication arises in the shape of Katisha (Miss Rosina Brandram), a very formidable virago, and the daughter-in-law elect of the Mikado. Nanki-Poo is the son of that monarch, and it was to escape wedlock with Katisha that he fled from his father’s Court and assumed the disguise of a musician. This, the lady explains, or rather tries to explain, for the excited guests will not admit her to audible speech.

In the second act the Mikado (Mr. R. Temple) appears on the scene to look after his fugitive son and heir. Ko-Ko, who believes that his imperial master is intent upon witnessing the long-delayed execution, forges an affidavit to the effect that Nanki-Poo has been beheaded that morning, being aided and abetted in his falsehood by Pooh-Bah, a great nobleman, who, in spite of his ancestors, has consented to serve under the ci-devant chief tailor in the manifold capacities of First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Chief Justice, Commander-in-Chief, Archbishop of Titipu, and Lord Mayor, and further castigates his family pride by accepting miscellaneous bribes from any one inclined to pay. This character has really little to do with the action, but, played as it is with the perfection of stolid humour by Mr. Rutland Barrington, it greatly adds to the general effect. The horror of Ko-Ko may be imagined when it is discovered that the wandering minstrel whom he pretends to have beheaded is the Crown Prince of Japan. That Prince, moreover, declines to reappear in the land of the living as long as the formidable Katisha remains single.

Finally Ko-Ko reluctantly makes up his mind to marry the lady himself, and this obstacle being removed all ends happily. It is scarcely necessary to add that this thread of story is eked out and diversified by the quaint entanglements of Mr.

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